QuickThoughts: Ephesians 1

Things we learn from just the first 14 verses of the epistle to the Ephesians:

• We have been blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (v. 3)
• The father “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (v. 4)
• “That we would be holy and blameless before Him in love” (v. 4)
• We have been predestined “to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself” (v. 5)
• Our adoption was done “according to the good pleasure of His will,” not our own. (v. 5)
• The purpose of our adoption was “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (v. 6)
• This grace was “bestowed on us in the Beloved,” who is Christ, by the Father. (v. 6)
• Because of our adoption and the richness of God’s grace, “we have redemption through His blood [and]… forgiveness of our transgressions” (v. 7)
• The Father caused His grace to abound in us in “all wisdom and insight” (v. 8)
• The Father makes “known to us the mystery of His will” (v. 9)
• Again, the Father does all this “according to His good pleasure which He purposed in [Christ].” (v. 9)
• This redemptive grace is the fulfillment of all things in Christ, the culmination of God’s redemptive plan which began in the Garden. (v. 10)
• In Him, we have obtained or been made an inheritance, again according to His purposes. (v. 11)
• God is working “all things according to the counsel of His will” (v. 11)
• He has done all this so that “we who first have hoped in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.” (v. 12)
• Those who have heard and believed the Gospel, all believers, have been “sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise” (v. 13)
• The Holy Spirit is given to all believers “as a pledge [or a promise] of our inheritance” (v. 14)
• To His glory, the indwelling Holy Spirit is a mark of “God’s own possession” (v. 14). He has placed His seal on us because we are His!

What glorious grace our Lord has chosen to pour out upon us in Christ Jesus, through no act of our own will, but solely for His good pleasure and to show forth His love and grace!